Tag Archives: fast

#973 – Speeding through a Sonic level

4 Mar

According to Sega in the early 90s, Genesis does what Nintendon’t (proper past tense would be, Genesis did what Nintendidn’t, but it doesn’t flow nearly as nice). This statement especially held true for Sega’s famous blue blur, Sonic. He still was very much a typical video game hero like Mario, but the main difference was that his speed was out of this world. If Mario is all about platforming finesse, Sonic is all about zooming through a level and making split-second decisions while doing it. That thrill surely deserves to be acknowledged on this awesome list.

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In today’s day and age the sense of speed seen in an old school Sonic level may not seem like much, but at the time the blast processing really ‘blasted’ our minds (see what my clever brain did there). Speeding through loops, across bridges, upside down, launching in the air with jump pads… all of this was unheard of at that rate. It was frantic and at times it seemed like total mayhem to the untrained eye, but it was tremendous fun and definitely unforgettable. And one can’t forget how beautiful everything looked, the whole thing remained colourful and sharp even at those death defying speeds.

Sonic as a character has not aged well at all as his recent outings have proven. Heck, I nearly hurt myself trying to wrap my brain around releases like Sonic Boom! or when he actually had the hots for a human woman. And who can forget all the lame characters that have been introduced over the years. But the main reason new Sonic fails is because it strays away from the formula that made him popular to begin with, going fast, really really really fast.

AWESOME!

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#984 – Getting away from the cops in Need For Speed

6 Nov

You are driving down the street, probably much quicker than you should when you hear a siren directly behind you. You go stiff and pray that you get let off the hook with merely a warning. The cop approaches your car door and you lower the window… let us stop there. No matter what the outcome is, how sweet would it be to drive off as fast as you can to avoid this confrontation. Pretty sweet if you ask me, especially if the only consequence was a virtual non-real fine and then you are back on your merry way. Well, in the wonderful world of Need For Speed, you can do just that. And boy is it more fun than stopping and getting a ticket.

Let me make this clear, I by no means condone running away from the cops in real life. But in Need For Speed, please go wild and break every road law in the book. That’s one of the amazing details that makes the video game world so fun, the chance to do something you only wish you could do in real life. I’m such a bad boy in this universe, aren’t I?

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NFS makes these virtual chases exciting every single time. In some games in the series, you can fight back with pre-determined areas that blow up a bunch of cop cars at once (a la pursuit breakers in NFS: Most Wanted). Or what about attacking the police by equipping weapons on your vehicle (a la NFS: Hot Pursuit). Or just the good old-fashioned way of driving as fast as you can to lose those suckers.

Whichever way you choose to defeat the law enforcement, that moment where you are in the clear is a proud achievement. Take a breath of fresh air, you are now a free man or woman… at least for another 5 minutes.

AWESOME!

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